Green Energy

By Natalie Sauer | – ( Climate Home News ) – As 2019 dawns, it is crunch time for the Paris Agreement on climate change. Last month’s UN climate summit in Katowice, Poland set (most of) the technical rules of the Paris Agreement, but showed little sign of renewed ambition. Responding to the latest scientific […]

Featured

Germany’s Electricity 38% Renewable in 2018, more than Coal for 1st Time

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Germany, a pioneer in renewables among the advanced industrial economies, now gets 38% of its electricity from renewables. In the United States the proportion of electricity generated by renewables is only about 20%, about half as much as Germany, because of the opposition to green energy of Big Oil, Big […]

Featured

Will its Renewables Revolution Give China an Edge over the US?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Financial Times buries its lead, focusing on an expected rise of offshore wind in the Asia-Pacific, but noting at the end of the article that the Asia-Pacific is expected to add 355 gigawatts (GW) of new solar capacity over the next five years. Edward White in Taipai slights this […]

Green Energy

Could Massive Solar and Wind Farms make the Sahara Green Again?

The Conversation

By Alona Armstrong | – Switching from fossil fuels to renewable energy is an important and necessary step towards averting climate change. However, in our efforts to go green, we also need to be mindful of other consequences, both intended and unintended – and that includes how a mass deployment of renewable technology might affect […]

Green Energy

In Huge Game-Changer: California commits to 100% Green Electricity within 25 Years

Marlowe Hood

Los Angeles (AFP) – California Governor Jerry Brown signed landmark legislation Monday committing his state to a 100 percent clean electricity grid by 2045. At least 20 countries and twice as many large cities have made similar pledges, but California — the fifth largest economy in the world — is by far the biggest jurisdiction […]

Featured

In Epochal Shift, California Votes for 100% Green Electricity by 2045

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – This week, the California state legislature voted to mandate that all the state’s electricity come from non-carbon sources (chiefly wind, solar and hydro) by 2045. Since California if it were a country would have the world’s fifth largest economy, and since so many other states are economically integrated with it, […]

Green Energy

Even Oil Gulf Sovereign Wealth Funds Sign Macron’s Green Investment Pledge

AFP

Paris (AFP) – Six sovereign wealth funds including four Gulf states have pledged to boost efforts to fight climate change at a Paris meeting called by Emmanuel Macron, the French presidential office announced Friday. The state funds of Kuwait, Norway, New Zealand, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates — global finance heavyweights mainly […]

Climate Change

Netherlands Proposes going 100% Green by 2050

AFP

The Dutch legislation aims to slash greenhouse gas emissions to near zero and mandates that the Netherlands have 100 percent carbon-neutral electricity by 2050 The Hague (AFP) – Dutch MPs unveiled ambitious new climate legislation Wednesday aimed at reducing the country’s greenhouse gas emissions to almost zero by 2050, while introducing an annual review to […]

China

China’s Green Shift is Positioning it to Overtake US in Energy Technology, Security

Juan Cole

The Guardian reports that air pollution in 62 Chinese cities fell by 30% between 2013 and 2016, according to the World Health Organization. Beijing, the capital, fell from a global 4th place ranking on polluted air to 187th. I was in Beijing in March, 2015, for a conference, and did a jaunt out to the […]